I overcooked this by a few minutes. It still tasted good but it really caramelized. Kinda lost some of the pumpkin flavor. The condensed milk can burn easily and I think I had it on too high of heat once the rice started to absorb all the liquid. Major Pumpkin Bummer, but not a total fail. Yep that’s me Always an Optimist.

Sad to say, but summer is gone and into Autumn we go. So to ease into the change I made my favorite fall muffin, which happened to coincide with Spry Living featuring the muffin recipe on their on-line publication. I was super excited.

I really love Spry Livings site I have found so many amazing recipes and quite a few new blogs to follow, I highly recommend checking them out.

So back to the Pumpkin Millet Muffin, I love this amazing little muffin. It is packed with flavor and crunch, and as a bonus, they freeze well. I love foods that freeze well. I like to keep a few out a few and freeze the rest for another day. Plus their healthy, and who doesn’t like that?

These muffins contain easy ingredients I normally have on hand. Loving my huge tub of Chobani.

I love toasting the Millet, it smells so good and kinda pops and brown up.

Plus they are so easy to just plop a spoonful into the muffin tin because it’s a thick batter.

I’ve made these Pumpkin Toasted Millet Muffin before in an earlier post, I was still learning how to take pictures of food at the time, plus it was in the dead of winter and indoor pictures are a real challenge for me.

Pumpkin Millet Muffins

Ingredients:

Makes 12

These muffins offer an intriguing crunch, thanks to the toasted millet. Savor them warm from the oven, or freeze a batch to have on hand. Allow muffins to cool completely before transferring to freezer bags. Thawed muffins may be reheated in a 300°F oven for 10 minutes or microwaved for 15-20 seconds to give them a little warmth.

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin pan; set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add millet and toast, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and just beginning to pop, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer millet to a plate to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Greek yogurt, soy milk, applesauce (to replace butter), pumpkin, Splenda packets and brown sugar; set aside. Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cooled millet in a medium bowl, then gently fold into egg mixture until just combined. Spoon batter into lined muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean, 22 to 25 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

I am already dreading taking indoor food pictures now that fall and winter are up on us. Having 90 percent of my pictures being taken outdoors in beautiful sunny weather has been a luxury for this beginner blogger and to go back to indoor food shots makes me sad, but I’m hoping to find a lighting solution by making a light box, or rigging a clip on light. I’ve been looking into some options.

So until then, I plan on taking as many outdoor pictures as possible! Natural Light Rules.

Hey, I also wanted to introduce you to a site I recently started to enjoy. Have you ever heard of SlimKicker? Well let me introduce you to them.

SlimKicker is an interactive website that helps you achieve a fitness goal or maintain your current one. It’s really fun to get your profile started. Once you do your off and running. On SlimKicker you log all your food and exercise and enjoy all the other features. One feature I really can not stop using is the challenges feature. I have a thing for challenges and this really keeps staying healthy fun. You can choose from tons of challenges, one I thought was perfect was the, Exercise before Facebook Challenge! Brilliant really. It keeps you on track and accountable for all your actions and helps you make it fun and easy to stay focused. They also have a database with recipes and calorie counts for practically every food imaginable. Then add in all the support from the community and the blog with so many amazing posts that will inspire and support your health needs. Just thought I’d share, sometimes when you find a gem you have to share the wealth.

I can Barley Contain Myself. Sorry, sometimes wordplay makes me think I’m clever. Well anyway I made a great batch of Barley as a side dish for our dinner and I have to say it really has a unique flavor. I have had barley in soup and mixed in with other grains, but I have never had it alone, so I was excited to try it out.

1 cup of barley to 3 cups of water with a vegetable broth packet for a little added flavor. Bring to a boil and simmer for 50 minutes.

This little grains packs 6 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein in each serving which is 1 cup.

Barley really plumps up, so 1 cup of raw barley is more than enough to make 2 large servings.

They come out chewy and nutty. I love the texture of this grain, so hearty and filling.

we also had Sweet Potato Discs drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt. Baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until crispy on the edges.

Made a basic baked pork chop, breaded in Panko bread crumbs and seasoned with garlic salt’s, I used liquid egg whites for the egg wash. Just a nice and light breading.

Pan fried for 5 minutes to brown the meat, then baked in the oven on 400 degrees for 40 minutes, I baked the Sweet Potato Discs and Pork Chops together.

This meal made my husband very happy, he loves a good chop. I am not vegetarian, but I do prefer a plant-based diet. It seems like I eat meat less and less and when I do I am always wishing I had a second vegetable on my plate instead of the meat.

Just after eating the cookies I noticed this lone pear that needed to be eaten tonight or I’d be feeding it to the Lovely Ladies on the Farm. So I sliced it up and Jeff and I ate that also.

This pear was super ripe and was super juicy. I loved every single bite.

When I took my first bite, I told my husband it was Peeaarrfect! He responded, “Your such a dork.” He could Barley stand my comedic genius.

Boot Camp is rolling on, even on vacation I made Boot Camp work for me, I was only gone 4 days and my friend’s apartment had a very nice gym. So before the day got started I would dash to the gym and complete a workout. I put the workouts on large index cards and laminated them so I would have them handy on my trip. Plus Tina has the program set up to be flexible.

On top of the workout’s I also got lots of extra cardio, we walked a few miles on the Allure Cruise Ship Tour, and we swan and went fishing. The fishing was a really big core and arm workout, the waves were rolling so anytime you stood up to reel in your catch you really engaged your core. Well I count it as extra!

Plank Club is going strong, I even got my friends and husband to do them with me, it was really fun. I managed to hold my Plank for 55 seconds each day, so I am happy to be holding steady, but I hope to make a break through any day now. I love how my husband can take months off from working out and just jump in and kill it. If I take anytime off from working out I lose strength.

Question of the Day: Do you count any housework/yard work as a workout?

Spray a 9×9 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mixture evenly in pan and sprinkle with nuts on top.

Bake 50 minutes or until center of cake is dry.

Top with Greek yogurt and maple syrup and enjoy. I love the crunch you get from the apples. This breakfast cake has amazing texture’s and layers of flavor. In one bite I got tons of cinnamon flavor, and the next I got an oatmeal and apple bite.

Today’s Workout:

30 Minutes on the Elliptical and The Ultimate Butt Workout.

Killer, absolutely Killer Workout. This was very challenging, and that’s exactly what I am looking for. I found this little gem on Alyssa’s Blog. I was not able to do every exercise as listed above (I did 10-12 reps), but I completed the 3 sets. I was left with a little energy so I added a set of Straight Leg Deadlifts.

The Deadlift is one move that has always been difficult for me and left me sore for several days after. I know how important these are and I plan on making them part of my weekly workout. I used a bar for this, I wanted a little more stability and I think the bar is best for me to start with.

Focus on form. Do It: Grab a pair of five-to eight-pound dumbbells and hold them in front of your thighs, feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Bend at your hips to lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the floor, keeping the weights close to your body. Return to standing, keeping the weights close to your body (as if you’re shaving your legs with the dumbbells). That’s one rep. Now I don’t know if this was such a good idea to do this set after the Ultimate Butt Workout, but I am really trying to challenge myself.

I love my purple weight bar and purple workout matt. It help’s make a rough workout just a little bit better, and any help I can get, I will take. After I completed that workout I got down on the matt and did some deep stretching.

My best friend recently went on a Caribbean cruise and sent me these little nuggets of love.

They have little bits of sea salt on them and are flavored with rum. Talk about a great combo, nuts, rum, salt and caramel, what a unique flavor. I had to check myself and only have a few, they were a great treat after that Killer workout.

Well I’m off to spend the day with my husband and my parents. We have a fun day planned out.

Having time to bake and cook up some dishes is how I spent my day. I played hooky from work and I do not feel bad at all. Well I didn’t really play hooky, my boss gave me the day off for covering for her vacation. I just feel more rebellious saying I’m Playing Hooky.

The Urban Dictionary described Playing Hooky as:

Playing Hooky

Skipping school or work.Play hooky, ‘be absent from school without an excuse’, is an Americanism first recorded around 1848.

It also says, To play hooky comes from the verb hook, euphemistically meaning ‘to steal’, or from the phrase hook it, meaning ‘to escape, run away, make off’.

So I mapped out my day:

Sleep In – Oops I slept until 10:30, I guess that’s what happens when I don’t use an alarm.

Workout – did 30 minutes on the Elliptical

Eat Peanut Butter – perfect breakfast

Baking- done

Make Quinoa Dish – done

Blog- doing that now

Shower I hope to get to it right after I publish this

It’s really cool to have a day off during the week.

Here’s what I made.

Breakfast was an English muffin with peanut butter, sliced banana and chia seeds. Hands down this has to be my favorite breakfast at the moment.

Then I made a batch of Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies.

This batch made 28 cookies. Once they cooled I bagged them up and put them in the freezer. They are perfect for a breakfast on the go.

As the cookies were baking, I mixed up the ingredients for Quinoa Crunch Casserole

Before it baked.

After it baked.

Then I made a no bake batch of Healthy Brown Rice Treats.

They are easy and super fast to make.

Slice into 12 bars.

Bag them up and store in the freezer. When you want to eat one they thaw out in about 15 minutes, but I like mine slightly frozen.

Perfect way to spend the day. I will post all the recipes on tomorrows blog, have a good night.

Normally I have a cocktail on Saturdays, but yesterday I just was not feeling it. So I tried something different. Coconut water on the rocks. The first sip I was a bit unsure if I liked it, but I had a few more sips and it really started to grow on me. It was a nice change.

This morning I had a fast and easy breakfast, Chobani and the last of my Pumpkin Protein Cookies that I had frozen. They thawed out in a few minutes. It was a really good combo. Looks like I am going to have to get some baking done soon. I love having these on hand, they are one of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

After breakfast it was time to get serious, I need to cook. My kitchen is now back in full working order. I have my new stove and I intend on using it.

Just a few ingredients added together created a nice big pot of Chicken Chili on Sunday.

The Fiesta soup really added a nice zip to the chili. I didn’t have this as part of the ingredients until I started to cook. The broth seemed a bit thin and looked boring. So as I looked in my cabinet for something to add, I saw the Fiesta soup and took a chance, and I am glad I did.

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups cooked chicken (you can use a oven-baked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to save on time), shredded (I used a can of Sam’s Club premium chicken)

1 can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed

1 can Black Beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained

1 can (4 ounces) green chilies

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 box (32 ounces) chicken broth

1 can Campbell’s Fiesta soup

Kosher salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

1 lime, juice

Directions:

In a large pot, saute the onion and cook until it starts to become translucent.

Once the onion is done, add shreds of chicken, beans, corn, green chilies (with juice from can), cumin and oregano to the large pot. Stir to combine all of the ingredients and then add the chicken broth and can of Fiesta soup.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes to allow the broth to reduce. Add salt and pepper and juice from one whole lime.

Leave simmering on stove until ready to serve.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, avocado or tortilla chips.

I love these tortilla chips, I don’t buy them that often, but when I do they don’t last long in my house.